Toyota dealer or a small shop for this service?

There's a difference between a flush and a drain & fill. A systems flush requires more fluids, equipment, and labor - some shops uses the term interchangeably. You should be clear on what the mechanic is going to do and if he's using the correct terminology. Some people here will argue it's a potato vs potatao, when it really isn't. Getting off the soap box now.
Yes, any qualified shop can do this basic maintenance work. You should probably add a brake system fluid FLUSH, if that has never been done on that car. FYI: most dealerships simply do a drain & fill, systems flush is additional for the reasons stated above.

Hope this helps....

 

Who did the big job and what was that job? As for fluid changes, as long as the shop has bled a Gen3 coolant system after adding new fluid, you can trust 'em. But a do have one friend that does his fliuid change for his Gen3 at a stealership because the price is lower than most places.

 

A regular flush was essential back in the day when materials that coolant system were made of were prone to corrosion. But now that everything is either plastic or aluminum the corroded system risk/need for flush is insignificant to non existent. Just changing the fluid is enough.

 

The answer could be do nothing if a head gasket was replaced.

GIGO applies to advice without data. Garbage in garbage (advice) out.

 

No, that was taken care of with the major brake system repair.

 

All 3 of those YOU can do yourself with basic tools.
Changing the trans fluid is a "little" tricky. You'll have to raise all four wheels and
make sure the car is level. Using jack stands, or ramps, or both.

When refilling the engine coolant, Use small amounts of coolant, and fill extremely slowly.
Then the coolant will push out the air and you won't get air trapped and waste hours and fuel
and time trying to get the air out.

 

You haven't been listening. They are drain and refill.......
There is nothing to flush. If you use the CORRECT fluid.

In an automatic transmission, older ones anyways, a machine can be attached to the hoses
for the cooler so fluid can be pumped out of the transmission and into the machine while a special
fluid is pumped in to clean it out and then new transmission fluid can be pumped in. And in theory,
you won't have to change the filter.
Since the Prius one doesn't have a filter, there is nothing to flush.

 

The flush was to remove fluid also from the torque converters older transmissions had.. CVT (prius transmission) does not have a torque converter. It is a simple drain and refill like an oil change (but no filter). Leveling it is the perfect way, but I did mine with the front end up on ramps while doing an oil change. You would think all the fluid wouldn't drain out, but it still took all the new 4 quarts refilled to get the fluid to begin running out the fill hole, so I say good enough, better than nothing (which Toyotas says it is "lifetime" fluid) that was 40k miles ago, all is fine. . The cost was somewhere around $40-$50 and I used a 1/2 in clear tube and a funnel to refill the fluid from under the hood. Be sure to remove the refill plug FIRST, if you drain it, then can't remove that plug, you cant drive the car until you refill the fluid.

 

In other words the transaxle fluid is similar to an oil change, you just drain and fill. There are no clutches to produce metal particles and no torque converter to trap oil.

The most important thing is to use Toyota WS fluid in the transaxle since this transaxle has electric motors submerged in it.

In theory engine or inverter coolants could be flushed instead of the recommended drain and fill but you would normally end up with something other than the proper coolant composition.

Flushes usually means flushing old coolant with a cleaning solution and water to remove contaminants, then draining that cleaning solution and finally trying to get the proper hybrid coolant solution in. But the cleaning solution and water will never be completely removed so you end up with a bad mix.

Coolant drain and fills with Toyota's 50/50 premix means you end up correct. Save your money and drain and fill twice as often. Which is what is required after the first go around.

If you want to do something that helps your engine change the engine oil at 5k miles instead of 10k by the book. If it is not burning oil now you might push back that gen3 problem.

 

The simple answer is NO. The Toyota manual assumes a simple drain & fill - otherwise it would specifically say flush.

Note: after the first coolant drain & fill; footnotes in the OM states that coolant replacement intervals will move to every 50K miles thereafter. The theory is that your not getting all the old coolant out, so every 50K is a safe interval to cycle through the old and new coolant mixture.

 

With soouch flush keyword I’m shocked they didn’t also say tune up.

 

"Someone was ahead of me driving slower than the posted speed limit. Told my wife that according to the Prius group I can flip this person off for delaying us a minute or two. She was like wow that's crazy... Did it maintaining the posted speed limit and it felt great!" - PriusMPGenius

"Also, are there really high mileage cars in Europe?" - Bill Norton

"My rear lights beeped and flashed once, saw sparks and smoke." - pstuebs03

"Does anyone know of an CARB certified oil catch can?" - kehyler

"$7,500 is pretty much close to paying off so." - neel

"Just because I don't check my dipstick doesn't mean car has been neglected...But I will be trading it soon because I want something a little more fun." - BrianPB

I'm sorry but If I go to a dealership and get oil changes every 4000 miles then I shouldn't have to check to see if I am completely out of oil in less than 4000 miles." - Tedh 1979

 

The Toyota recommended coolant ONLY comes premixed with water (50/50 in the States, and 55/45 in Canada), so doing a “flush”, running copious amounts of straight water through (and down the street to nearby stream…) leaves you with a dilemma when it comes to refill. If it HAS to be done, say due to some contamination such as a stop-leak product, there’s a link in my signature, how to deal with it (if on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures). Also, attached are engine and inverter coolant change instructions from repair manual.

Also in my signature, see transaxle fluid change link, has info and tips.